The case came to light when villagers reportedly informed the police that they had apprehended a cattle thief. A police team took the victim to Govind Ballabh Pant (GBP) Hospital in Agartala, but he succumbed to the injuries he received in the assault.

NEW DELHI – Yet another case of lynching, this time it’s in Tripura, a northeastern state of India. But the victim, as usual, is a Muslim. Even the purported motive behind the crime remains the same: Cow protection.

A 26-year-old Muslim youth was beaten to death in a Tripura village on Tuesday reportedly on the pretext of cattle theft. The police, later, filed a case and arrested two people after the victim’s father Jamal Miah lodged a complaint, reports said.

Litan Miah, a resident of Tarapukur area, was assaulted by a group of people at Baramura village in Sepahijala district on Tuesday morning on the suspicion that he was in the village trying to steal cattle. During the attack, he was wounded so badly that he was to be rushed to a nearby hospital. But unfortunately, he succumbed to his injuries while on the way to hospital.

“We have registered a case and arrested two persons on the complaint of Litan’s father. Investigation is still going on,” a police official was quoted in a report by Indian Express. Those arrested are identified as Sentu Debnath and Amar Chandra Das.

The case came to light when villagers reportedly informed the police that they had apprehended a cattle thief. But when a police team reached the spot, they found Miah badly bruised. They took him to a local hospital where he was referred to Govind Ballabh Pant (GBP) Hospital in Agartala where he was declared as brought dead.

His death prompted protests in the area as people came out in large numbers to block the road near Dhanpur, the locality of Union Minister of State for Social Justice Pratima Bhoumik.

Of late, incidence of violence on the pretext of cattle theft has become a routine affair in Tripura and other north eastern states. Last year, three Muslim men were lynched by villagers in Khowai district of the state after branding them cattle thieves.